There’s Always “A Way” In Regards To Marvel’s Hand

by Erik Amaya

Spoilers follow if you have not finished The Defenders …

If you binged through Netflix’s The Defenders over the last couple of days, you know The Hand play a pretty prominent role. Built from whispers and cameos in the other Netflix Marvel series, their ultimate plan finally came to fruition, leaving the four heroes of those other shows to come together and stop the ancient ninja organization. Provided, of course, anyone can really ever stop an ancient clan of ninjas. Since their introduction in Marvel comic books, The Hand has survived seemingly crushing blows to cause more chaos and inspire cheeky parodies like The Foot Clan in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. But what of The Hand’s TV counterpart?

As seen in episode eight of The Defenders, the remaining key members of The Hand, Murakami (Yutaka Takeuchi) and Madame Gao (Wai Ching Ho), were buried under the Midland Circle building alongside Elektra and Matt Murdoch. Gao even referred to it as “the end.” But unlike the organization’s other principal members — or “Fingers,” as they addressed themselves — we never see Gao and Murakami die. While talking with Entertainment Weekly about the miniseries’ finale, showrunner Marco Ramirez addressed the possibility that this omission may seed a Hand return later on.

“Well, in the Marvel world — and as Jeph Loeb, the Marvel TV head, would say — in the comic-book world, you can always find a way. The story finds a way.” he said. Though The Defenders ends the Hand storyline introduced in the first season of Daredevil, Ramirez added, “I don’t know if it’s the end of the Hand forever.”

With three of its five fingers definitively cut off, The Hand may yet mange to claw its way out of that filled pit; and considering Gao is one of the best guest characters on all of the shows, one hopes her rebuilding of The Hand may one day become an ongoing plot in the Defenders’ shows.

Erik Amaya

Host of Tread Perilously and a Film/TV Writer at Comicon.com. A contributing writer at CBR, Fanbase Press, Monkeys Fighting Robots and Rotten Tomatoes. Voice of Puppet Tommy on The Room Responds. A seeker of the Seastone Chair and the owner of a Legion Flight Ring. Sorted into Gryffindor, which came as some surprise.